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Dell Lattitude C800 powers on for a few seconds, then turns off.

JC316

JC316

Knows what makes you tick
Joined
Jan 24, 2006
Messages
9,397 (1.33/day)
System Specs
System Name Budget Gaming
Processor AMD FX6300
Motherboard Gigabyte 880GMA-USB3
Cooling Coolermaster Hyper 212+
Memory 8GB Ripjaws DDR3 1600
Video Card(s) HD7850 1GB
Storage 1TB Sata2
Display(s) Acer 24" LED
Case Generic black
Audio Device(s) Stock onboard
Power Supply FSP Aurum Gold 650W
Software Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit
A friend gave me this, so I have no idea what the specs are. Basicly it didn't have a harddrive, so I figured this was the reason it wouldn't power up, I got a new one and I am still having the same problem.

I press the power button and the processor kicks on, followed by the harddrive and the CD drive, then it just shuts off. I never get a display or anything. One of the ram modules had a loose heat spreader, so I removed it and still no go. I cant find a Cmos to reset, so I am kinda stumped. Does anyone know what could be wrong?

I think it's a pentium 3 800MHZ, I know it has the radeon mobility chip.
 
overheating?

try taking out the battery, wait 10-15min and plug it back in.

cant really screw up the bios on a laptop.

you may have to pull the laptop apart to see if there is no soldier defects are bad caps.
 
I have it apart. How would I find a bad cap? It's really quite simplistic on the inside. It can't be overheating since it has mostly passive heating, just a heatsink with a heatpipe that goes over to the fan. The previous owner has messed with it, so he could have screwed something up, I just have to find out what.
 
sounds like something is dead on it
 
I am thinking it's either the RAM, or something that posts before the ram. I removed the RAM modules and it does the exact same thing. The previous owner claimed that to my friend that it was a government laptop and he had to disable it, hence no harddrive. Persoanlly I think the guy is a complete computer moron, since he messed up my friends laptop as well.

I have found several screws missing on the inside, mostly around the video card, could these be grounding points that need screws to make it work?
 
Well, I have searched other forums and found out that it's a motherboard defect.
 
damn...lucky its fairly old
 
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